Souhan: Masters of the unappreciated work that drives franchises, Duwelius, Smith, and St. Peter must be praised for Twin Cities sports

Smith, too, was known for putting in extra work. Last season, she helped the Lynx become the best three-point shooting team in the league, after finishing 11th in the 12-team league the season before.

She coached Kayla McBride and Bridget Carleton so well on shooting mechanics and mentality that both broke her Lynx franchise record for three-pointers made in a season.

Neither Duwelius nor Smith sought attention, but the players knew their value.

St. Peter followed a similar path to Duwelius, getting a low-level job with a big-league franchise and slowly climbing the organizational ladder.

What’s different about St. Peter is that he invested his entire adult life in THE … of one franchise.

He went from running the Twins pro shops you’d see in strip malls back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s to becoming team president and eventually CEO. He’s one reason the Twins went from threats of relocation and contraction in the late ‘90s to becoming a stable franchise with a state-of-the-art ballpark.